Comments (54)

What did you think about this title?
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Jan 14, 2024FrancesPrice rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I selected this book when Cline's newer book wasn't available. It was my first time reading Cline. Her writing style draws you into her creation of time and place, the characters, and the plot line. Actually the plot line was almost…
Sep 11, 2023michaelzaitzow rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Maybe best not to comment. But, How can you write meaningfully about the Manson murders? One imagines that anything that elevates the murderous players betrays something, devalues something crucially human. But Emma Cline is very good at…
Aug 31, 2023DBRL_Katie rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The cover gives this book a summery YA romance vibe, but that is absolutely not the case. After finishing Cline's "The Guest," I was curious about her previous work. Similarities include exploring the young woman protagonist's social…
Aug 21, 2023kelseygood11 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Definitely a more compelling coming of age girlhood story rather than a unique take of Manson murders. A little slow in the beginning and I'm not sure I liked the structure of the main character looking back in hindsight. However Cline has…
Mar 07, 2022cmlibrary_MegMH rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the late 60's. A young girl finds her home life with divorced parents stifling, but she is captivated by the free-spirited young women she runs into in the park. After befriending them, she…
Jan 31, 2022alecbussott rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
It started pretty rough, but the Girls proved to be a thoughtful story of adolescence and femininity.
Oct 20, 2021eusebius rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
It's a remarkable work by a young writer. I'm not sure prose is her best medium; she has an extraordinary ability to see something and to transmit the impression in words. She's rather like Dickens in that respect, that you expect to read…
Jul 20, 2021lailaazhar_13 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The Girls is set in the 1960s, and is based on the infamous Manson murders. The book follows 14 year old Evie, who sees a group of girls at a park one day, immediately becomes enamoured with them, and ends up getting swept up into their…
Jul 09, 2021badidea rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This novel was brilliant and haunting. It reminded me of the excellent book, Helter Skelter that I read 46 years ago.
Dec 20, 2019becker rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
There have been lots of mixed feelings about this book and I can understand why, but I really liked it. We have all wondered how someone can get themselves tangled up in a cult. Well here is a story about how that might happen. I thought…
Oct 16, 2019lynelliot rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly sharp portrayal of the psyche of a 15-year-old girl. Though set 50 years ago in a particular place and cultural moment, the novel's representation of Evie's longing to be seen and loved, and her attempts to gain those things…
Sep 05, 2019MoonBeamz11 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I liked this book enough. The setting and her writing draw you in. I liked her broken sentences and descriptions that were short and poignant, not too sweepingly drawn out. She has a unique way of having Evie observe something plain in an…
Jul 14, 2019EljayJohnson rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
What a headache. The first several pages showed promise, but a few paragraphs doth not make a book. This was the publishing phenom of 2016: a 20-something unknown received a multi-million dollar advance/deal for this first novel. So, a…
May 17, 2019jswense rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
I was completely engrossed by this book. Cline did a masterful job of capturing the desperate, frantic experience of girlhood. It is incredible the way she was able to humanize the mythic "Manson Girls" without forgiving them.
Dec 02, 2017green_cat_1952 rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Some parts of the story shocked me. Of course, I didn't grow up during this time, so I could just be a bit ignorant, seeing as this era was considered "the Sexual Revolution." I get that Cline was intending for this to be more of a…
Jun 02, 2017stewaroby rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
This had good reviews but I so would not have finished it if I hadn't been trapped on a long-haul flight with a terrible selection of movies. Really two stars is praising it.
RPinnix
May 22, 2017
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May 15, 2017ownedbydoxies rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
I'd heard good things regarding this book, but honestly, I couldn't really find anything that interesting or unique about it. A girl who is feeling ugly and confused, spends a lot of time and thought trying to figure out how to not feel…
May 13, 2017m0mmyl00 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Evie Boyd was a young teenager, feeling uncool and unpopular. She happened to see a group of desperately cool girls in the park one day and sort of fell in love with the ringleader. They were unkempt but confident and free, everything she…
May 02, 2017uncommonreader rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
Cline may have talent, but I do not understand the point of this lightly fictionalized account of the Manson family, taken from second and third hand sources. There is no insight into why these girls, especially at this point in time,…
May 01, 2017
I'm a little late to the bandwagon on this book but I'm so glad I picked it up. I was sucked in pretty much right away (especially because ABC had just aired a new special about the Mansons). Some people have griped about her writing…
CarleeMcDot
Mar 29, 2017CarleeMcDot rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
It started off slow (when I was 75 pages in I actually thought I might give up on it because I was a bit bored), but it definitely draws you in. The story features a Manson-ish cult and is told from the perspective of a somewhat outsider.…
JMFreads
Mar 09, 2017JMFreads rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
I was a bit confused with the first several pages. I couldn't quite grasp what was happening or where the story was going. But a few more pages in and the story took off. I really enjoyed this novel written about the simple idea of a…
Feb 21, 2017Needlz rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
I feel like this book was overhyped. I found the writing style physically painful to read. This goes beyond purple prose. "The nothing jump of soda in my throat." What does that even mean?? The author tried way too hard to write…
Feb 15, 2017darladoodles rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
It is heartbreaking to see girls gone bad up close. What a waste of potential, but understandable when you add in some clueless parents and some adults without scruples. One of the saddest things in this story was the absence of good men.